PROFILE OF AN ARTIST

Michele has loved dolls for as long as she can remember and already had an extensive Barbie doll collection before she began making dolls. After purchasing a sewing machine approximately six years ago, Michele began making teddy bears.  The teddys gave her the courage to try her hand at doll making. 

Her first dolls were porcelain, made outside of the home.  Due to her preference for creating in the comfort of her own home, and because of her active 3-year-old, a kiln in the home was not an option.  The decision was made to try cloth doll making, and she created a few dolls with the traditional pancake face.  These dolls, in her opinion, were lacking something.  She began experimenting with molded faces and was extremely pleased with the results as were others.

As a self-taught designer and doll artist for a little over a year, Michele developed her cloth doll designs during the year, 2003.  Cloth is her doll-making medium of choice because she considers it an interesting art form.  To Michele, there is just something inherently warm and calming about cloth.  She explains, “I can walk into a fabric store and just get completely lost in all of the colors and textures.”  For Michele, “it really is a feast for the senses.”   She further explains that, “Cloth dolls represent the warmth, comfort, and reassurance that we all need to feel at some point in our lives, and not necessarily just during childhood.   I began working in felt because it was readily available and comes in a wonderful range of shades.  Then I moved on to try different fabrics.  What is fun about cloth dolls is that once they have a wired skeleton, you can put them into various poses at will…they aren’t just static.”

The method used for creating her cloth dolls came from a merger of two of her passions:  her love of dolls and her love of painting.  Because of her love for fabric she also enjoys designing and sewing her dolls’ clothing. 

Because many people, mainly family members, commented on how much her first doll looked like she did as a child, Michele’s first cloth doll bears her name.  The doll, however, was a gift for her niece.  She had been experimenting with a variety of molded face techniques and was not entirely certain of what to expect.  The “Michele” doll surpassed the artist’s hopes and its creation gave her the desire to continue doll making.

While she creates a variety of dolls from cloth, baby dolls and child dolls are among her favorite types to create.  She has created one baby boy doll, named after her son, Ryan.  In fact, all of Michele’s dolls are named after people she knows.  None of her dolls, however, are portrait dolls, at least not intentionally; but she would like to attempt a portrait doll of her son as an infant. 

During the year that she has been creating dolls, most of her 30 doll creations have been young and female.  She would like to attempt a bride and groom and perhaps a few little boys.  She loves to experiment with new pattern designs and to see what presents itself. 

Michele also enjoys mixing various colors, skin tones, eye colors, and hair colors.  She prefers making dolls with her complexion because there was always a shortage of black dolls available when she was a child.  With each doll created, Michele strives for more and more realism.  She enjoys experimenting with various inner workings in order to give better external results.  It is her hope that her dolls evoke an emotion in the collector, perhaps a memory of a special time in their lives or a special feeling.  She desires for her dolls to call to the collector on a personal level.

Michele believes that dolls create their own personalities.  “This is evident when I dress a little girl doll in the frilly dress and fancy shoes I had in mind, look at her and think ‘no way, this look is all wrong,’ and I have to change her into some jeans, hiking boots, and a sweater.”  Michele feels that this principle can also be applied to motherhood:  “You really don’t get to choose your child’s personality.”

As a former preschool teacher, Michele always found children incredible little beings.  To Michele, children “have a sense of adventure, and mischief, innocence, wisdom and compassion that we as adults should strive to recapture.”  She tries to capture some of those qualities in her dolls that are so aptly called “A Child’s Life.”  Michele has on occasion created lady dolls, but that is most often only to satisfy the need to create an elaborate costume only suitable for an adult doll. 

Her dolls are a labor of love.  On average, one of Michele’s dolls can take 3 to 5 days to complete.  On some occasions she may start with an idea in mind.  On other occasions, she may see a child at play and attempt to capture that moment.  Still at other times, she might be inspired by a piece of fabric that suggests a particular outfit, and she will design a doll around it.  Still at other times, a hair color or style might appeal to her.  According to Michele, there does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to what inspires her to create a doll.  The mood can strike at any time, and she just goes with whatever comes. 

Other than porcelain doll making, Michele confesses that although she was very much anti-vinyl (in spite of her extensive Barbie doll collection), she was won over by the quite popular reborn dolls.  She has created a reborn baby doll named Sierra and has become hooked on the lifelike qualities of the reborn dolls. 

At the time of this writing, Michele was at work on her latest doll creation.  The doll has inserted eyes instead of painted eyes and real eyelashes.   The use of the inserted eyes and real eyelashes brings this doll a step closer to realism.  According to Michele, “These features give a very different look and feel to the doll, which presents a whole new set of ideas for accessorizing.” 

A Child’s World doll ranges in price from $250.00 to $750.00, with the majority falling in the mid range.  The dolls are sold through catalogues and trade shows.  The auction method of selling has not yet been tried, although is a possible future consideration.

For those who are inspired to create their own dolls, Michele designs and sells doll patterns and kits which are available wholesale and retail, sold through various retail outlets.  Each kit contains step-by-step, detailed, illustrated instructions, and selected fabrics and joints to create movable limbs.  The kits are priced as follows:

• Felt doll kits without wig/hair $60 CDN

• Felt doll kits with wig/hair $80 CDN
• Cloth doll kits $65.00 without wig
• Cloth doll kits $85.00 with wig
• Cloth doll kits with wig and Real™ eyes $100

Michele will be attending a few doll and bear shows in the fall of 2003.  Her most recent show was in London Ontario, Canada on September 28, 2003.

Michele also teaches doll making, teddy bear making, and conducts painting workshops.  Because she has received several requests to teach the art of reborn doll making, using Berenguer™ dolls, Michele may incorporate this into her doll-making curriculum for next season.  

Future plans will eventually include trying her hand at sculpting dolls, which she describes as “something that doesn’t come easily or naturally to me.  This is why I feel I need to master it.  I love a challenge!”   Future plans also include writing a book, perhaps a doll making instruction book, or a collection of patterns.

For inspiring doll artists, Michele says:  “Go for it!  You never know what you can accomplish until you try!  I always remind my students to have fun…if you let yourself enjoy the learning process, you will never know failure!”